There are many benefits to keeping a personal journal. It
can be more than a diary of your daily activities. Writing slows down your
inner dialogue so you can examine your thoughts and give voice to emotions that
need releasing. Examining your feelings can be healing, as beneficial as a deep
conversation with a dear friend or a spiritual connection with your Creator.
At various times in my life, I’ve found that journaling
was a necessary tool for my personal survival. After my divorce, I needed a way
to calm my troubled spirit. Expressing my feelings openly and honestly in my
private diary helped restore my sense of value and self worth. Understanding
and working through difficult emotions such as loneliness and abandonment in situations
like divorce, death of a spouse or never marrying can be overwhelming, even if
you are surround by others. Life is full of challenges and losses for everyone.
In adjusting to any difficult situation: i.e. health
issues, death or relationship problems, there are definite stages of grieving
to move through by journaling and/or counseling with a trained practitioner or
trusted religious advisor. As defined by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her model
“The Five Stages of Grief,” the process includes: 1. Denial 2. Anger 3.
Bargaining 4. Depression, and 5. Acceptance. (Wikipedia)
First comes the stage called shock or denial for whatever
it is that you are experiencing. Then examining your anger with self or others
involved can move you to the next step of bargaining. i.e. Well, if I had
done this or he/she hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t be suffering now. The steps don’t necessarily
come sequentially, but can occur in any order. Just knowing that these stages
of grief are normal is helpful. It is possible to get stuck in a stage like
depression and never make it to acceptance. That’s when a trained mental health
counselor and/or medical intervention may be necessary.
It’s important in journaling to not allow yourself to get
stuck in self-pity. Be sure to look on the positive side of the lessons you are
learning from the challenges you face. To get started, buy yourself a simple
journal and reserve at least ten minutes each morning before starting your day
to check in with your feelings. Don’t know what to write about, write about
that. A good way to close each day’s journal entries is with gratitude. NEXT
TIME: Healing Letters